1. Field of the Invention
The system of the present invention relates to whirlpool baths. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system for flushing fluids through the mechanism of a whirlpool bath in order to disinfect, clean, or flush the system.
2. General Background
Whirlpool baths are used extensively in the treatment of injured or ill patients, as a therapeutic device. In general, a whirlpool bath allows a patient to submerge the injured portion of his body into a tank filled with a certain quantity of water, and the mechanism of the bath draws water up into a pump mechanism to be exited under certain force, so to provide a swirling motion of hot fluid around the injured part, which is known to help reduce swelling, or infection, or perhaps clean open wounds of a patient.
One of the overriding concerns in the use of whirlpool baths, is the assurance that the whirlpool bath is completely clean after use of the bath by a particular patient. In the cleaning of the tank portion of the bath, the tank portion or the outer mechanism is simply rubbed or scrubbed down with a disinfectant or the like, to assure that all germs left in the outer mechanism or tank have been removed so that the next patient may use the mechanism in a clean manner. However, an overriding concern is the cleaning of the internal mechanism i.e., the intake pipe, the pump mechanism and the outflow pipe, which cannot be cleaned with a type of "scrub-down", and must have fluids flushed therethrough. Therefore, in the present state of the art, this is accomplished by filling the tank with a level of water above the intake port, placing a disinfectant in the water, and turning the bath on so that the water is circulated through the pipes to the intake pipe to pump in the outflow pipe, thereby cleaning them. However, this particular method of cleaning is often expensive and time consuming due to the fact that the water volume, particularly in the large tanks, is quite great, and which must be therefore removed after the cleaning is complete. Another type of method is to submerge the intake pipe into a "container" of water containing disinfectant and undertaking the same type of flow through the system. Again, this process of having to fill the container with water inserted into the tank and place the mechanism thereinto also is quite time consuming and inefficient.
The following patents have been found in the search conducted of the art and may be pertinent to the present invention:
______________________________________ U.S. PAT. NO. INVENTORS DATE ______________________________________ 831,722 H. J. HOLMES Sept. 25, 1906 1,941,065 S. WILLIAMSON Dec. 26, 1933 1,605,749 W. H. McCARTHY Nov. 2, 1926 4,321,712 DIXON March 30, 1982 2,267,064 E. WIKELUND Dec. 23, 1941 3,936,892 MILLER Feb. 10, 1976 4,371,991 SCHROTT Feb. 8, 1983 ______________________________________
This invention constitutes an improvement over Applicant's pending application Ser. No. 243,278 filed on Sept. 12, 1988 entitled "System For Cleaning Whirlpool Baths", which is incorporated by reference thereto. This improvement would solve the problem of reducing the pressure of the water being introduced into the system, in order to avoid the water under high pressure from moving into the housing area, and making contact with the motor assembly.